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CHAPTER
5
CHEERFULNESS
GOD
BLESS the cheerful person, man, woman, or child! Would to God there were more
cheerfulness and not so much gloom! Over and above every other social trait
stands cheerfulness. What the sun is to nature, what the stars are to night,
what God is to the stricken heart that knows how to lean upon him, are cheerful
persons in the house and by the wayside. Man recognizes the magic of a cheerful
influence in woman more quickly and more willingly than the potency of dazzling
genius, of commanding worth, or even of enslaving beauty. If
we are cheerful and contented, all nature smiles with us, the air seems more
balmy, the sky more clear, the ground has a brighter green, the trees have a
richer foliage, the flowers are more fragrant, the birds sing more sweetly, and
the sun, moon, and stars all appear more beautiful. Cheerfulness!
How sweet in infancy, how lovely in youth, how saintly in age! There are some
noble natures whose very presence carries sunshine with them wherever they go.
How such a face enlivens every other face it meets, and carries into every
company vivacity and joy and gladness! Look at the bright side. Keep
the sunshine of a living faith in the heart. Do not let the shadow of
discouragement and despondency fall on your path. However weary you may be, the
promises of God will never cease to shine like the stars of night to cheer and
strengthen. A hopeful spirit will discern the silver lining of the darkest
cloud. The times may he hard, but it will make them no easier to wear a gloomy
and sad countenance. It is the sunshine and not the cloud that makes the
flowers. Let us try, then, to be the sunshiny members of the family who have the
inestimable art of making all duty seem pleasant, all self-denial and exertion
easy and desirable, even disappointment not so blank and crushing. Have
you not known people within whose influence you felt cheerful, amiable, and
hopeful—equal to anything? Oh for that blessed power and for God’s grace to
exercise it rightly! I do not know a more enviable gift than the power to
diffuse around us an atmosphere of cheerfulness, piety, truthfulness,
generosity, magnanimity. Reader, covet this grace.
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